National

ANZ reaches 100,000 digital property settlements through PEXA

ANZ has hit an industry-leading milestone, becoming one of the first major bank brands to reach 100,000 digital property transactions!

We achieved the milestone on 3 November 2017 using the Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) platform, which allows for the electronic processing of financial settlements. Would you believe that despite property being Australia's largest asset class, valued at over $7.3 trillion, settlements are mostly transacted the old-fashioned way, on paper? You still have to make an appointment to exchange documents and bank cheques across a table between the buyer and seller representatives. Then the cheques need to be banked and cleared, documents lodged with land registries and state revenue offices, and finally some days or weeks later the title, funds, taxes and mortgage all make their way into the correct hands. It's a long, costly and cumbersome process that should be left in the last century!

ANZ is a passionate supporter of digital settlements, for one simple reason – we believe it’s better for customers, and better for the industry to have these transactions done instantly, online, any time.

Our current incoming average refinance volumes are 123 per day, compared with an average of 83 across the big four banks. A remarkable achievement considering the relative size of our businesses. We now have one of the highest rates of utilisation in the industry, with Victorian refinances standing out at 88%. In only four years ANZ has gone from no electronic transactions to completing nearly nine out of every ten refinances in Victoria online.

But let me take you back a few years, to acknowledge where we came from:

Our first electronic transaction was just over four years ago, in October 2013.

By December 2016 we had completed 50,000 electronic property transactions.

And last month ANZ hit another industry milestone as the first major standalone brand to achieve 100,000 electronic transactions - doubling our electronic volume in less than 12 months.